Leon Botha AKA DJ Solarize is a man well known for his eccentric yet exquisite art-work, but also known for being a genuine warrior of being. All hail as an inspirational achiever, natural artist and a musical radiance has entered the building.

Headbang Today contentedly welcomes Solarize to the headbanger quarters!

Interview by Scream

Scream: I am privileged to be able to grab a few minutes out of your time for this interview. We usually interview a metal band here and there depending on who impressed us at the right moment, but no one ever said that we’re limited to bands only! So, how have you been lately? Been serving those lemon slices back?

Leon:
Peace, privileged to be interviewed… Especially since you say it’s out of the usual.  Been a hectic year, but surviving. You can say slicing and serving… at a unusual tempo. Ja.

Scream:  As a personal fan of your artwork, I have to ask you this: Where does your inspiration channel from?

Leon: I would say that life inspires me –pain, love, and the correspondance between all these extremes are somehow linked to a will to create, or act as a channel to manifest into form.

Scream: Give us some insight into the thinking processes before unleashing your innermost self upon the canvas?

Leon: I am always working on concepts or ideas, while I’m listening to music, reading a book or watching films, contemplating certain issues, or whatever. It tends to spark something, and then I work on it. There’s usually dozens of them in my head at the same time, but they need to develop in my head till I feel it’s the right time. Then I try to bring those ideas into this realm. And then it’s always some compromising and adaptation going on.

Scream: What next do you have planned for your imaginative career as an artistic painter?

Leon: The collaboration exhibition with photographer Gordon Clark “Who Am I? …Transgressions”  is a slumbering giant that is awakening, about to open it’s third showcase, in Germany, in the beginning of October. Also working on a solo collection of my own.

Scream: Most of your pieces would make fantastic album artwork for bands. As rumours have it, you possess the tolerance of metal and have pulled off some decent roof-raising mixing at gigs that contained some of the best metal songs in the industry…. What are your views on heavy metal? (Any favourite bands etc?)

Leon: Definitely. Music plays a huge role as far as where my visual ideas come from aswell. And, as a dj, I enjoy all kinds of music. I enjoy anything from bands like Lamb of God, Slipknot, Korn, Opeth to Rage Against The Machine, all the way to System Of A Down, and ofcourse Tool. To mention a few.
My view is, that it is very similair to that of HipHop. That it is a very raw energy, and as far as a dj, I feel it’s important to surprise the crowd, and to throw something like Metal into your set is a big challenge for me. You cannot really mix it, so I look for creative ways to make the transitions instead. But I do it in much the same way I would, with any of my other sets.

Scream: Ooh, Tool. They’re solid. You’ve been able to conjure up mosh-pits at gigs purely by your excellent sets. Will you ever get bored of that kind of power?

Leon: Ummm… I see it as a humble discipline, that I need to keep learning and develop. It is also a priveledge for me, because I am not able to hit every club in town, every weekend.

Scream:  When you were gigging at the 3 Arts Theater in front of a sold out crowd of 3500, what was it like to whip out Slipknot’s Psychosocial and watching the masses quit their own individual sanities?

Leon: Because the amount of people there was a little overwhelming to me, I was trying to find ways to connect with the crowd. To get some energy rippling throughout them. And Metal fans  will “show” that they are Metal fans, if you give them chance. I wanted their energy in there, and it was amazing to have that call answered.

Scream: Anything else you would like to add? Something for the fans?

Leon: I hope to be out there more, and keep giving all of you a cool experience. Watch the space and proteck ya neck! Peace ->L

UPDATE: We have learned that Leon Botha had sadly passed away on the 5th of June 2011 literally a day older than 26 years of age. R.I.P Leon… We will miss you.